California Arts Council
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| State agency overview | |
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| Jurisdiction | State of California |
| Headquarters | Sacramento, California USA |
| Employees | 15 |
| State agency executives |
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| Website | www |
The California Arts Council is a state agency based in Sacramento, United States. Its eleven council members are appointed by the Governor and the state Legislature. The agency's mission is to advance California through the arts and creativity.
The California Arts Council was established in 1976 and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown,[1] who dissolved the existing 15-member California Arts Commission, which had been in existence since 1963.[2]
The opening paragraph of California Code Section 8750-8756 reads:
[For the government code, see http://law.justia.com/california/codes/gov/8750-8756.html .]
When Congress created the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 1965, it required the NEA to apportion funds to any state that established an arts agency. State arts agencies increase public access to the arts and work to ensure that every community in America enjoys the cultural, civic, economic and educational benefits of a thriving arts sector.
To do this, according to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, state arts agencies:
All 50 states and the six U.S. jurisdictions (American Samoa, District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) have state arts agencies. The NEA is required by law to allocate 40% of its grant funds to states and regions. State arts agencies, including the California Arts Council, use these dollars to leverage matching funds, to address local needs, and to expand the reach and impact of federal arts funding across the country.
Although the structure of state arts agencies anticipated that the bulk of their funding would come from annual or biennial appropriations from state legislatures, in California that has not always been the case. Funding of the California Arts Council has followed the general fiscal trends in the state.
The California Arts Council’s biggest budget was $32 million in 2000-01. During the fiscal crisis of 2003-2004, the California Arts Council lost 94% of its funding from the state legislature, resulting in deep cuts to arts council programs and staff. Ripple effects from these cuts were felt throughout the creative economy (for example, in 2003 funding from the California Arts Council supported 54 local arts councils in counties and cities throughout the state; by 2006 many of these local agencies had disappeared). California now dedicates fewer tax dollars per capita to support the arts than any other state or territory of the United States. However, the California Arts Council receives revenue from two income streams that are not dependent on allocation of tax dollars: the Arts License Plate and voluntary contributions, both of which the Franchise Tax Board deems tax-deductible as charitable contributions to the California Arts Council. In 2013, the Arts Council received a budget reduction down to $5 million for the 2013-14 fiscal year, before later receiving a one-time infusion to just above $7 million, representing a 29.2% increase.
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